From NEHJ: Leadership lessons on, off ice at Canterbury

By Arielle Aronson

Clockwise from lower left, Canterbury hockey coach Padraic
McCarthy, assistant coaches Pete Cotier and Ryan Bailey, and
director of admission Matt Mulhern. Located in New Milford, Conn.,
the school was founded in 1915 and has an average enrollment of
about 350 students.

For years, Canterbury School
hockey coach Padraic McCarthy treated his team’s captains
like any other coach: After the team elects the captains, give the
new leaders some advice and hope for the best.

But when McCarthy went back to
school to get a master’s degree in coaching education, he
realized his captains could do with some more education as well.
McCarthy discovered a leadership training program based out of
North Carolina as part of his graduate studies and decided to
tailor the program to help turn his captains into leaders.

Four years later, that
leadership program has become key to Canterbury’s quest to
return to the hockey glory it enjoyed in the mid-1990s.

“What I found through my
coaching experience before I started this program is that we had
leadership issues,” McCarthy said. “Kids elect captains
and then you just expect these really good kids to be able to lead
their peers without any training. I said, ‘I have to change
this,’ and that led me to start researching and searching.
‘Are there some answers for this?’ ”

The answer is now a 10-week
summer course that begins after the team elects the upcoming
season’s captains in the spring. Throughout the summer, the
captains and Coach McCarthy read a 10-chapter book together that
teaches them about leadership, commitment and communication in the
hopes of empowering captains as both vocal leaders and leaders by
example.

Canterbury’s captains this
season, senior goaltender Christian Short and senior defenseman
Michael Decker, both said the program has helped them become better
leaders on the ice and better people off the ice. Short, who is in
his third season playing for Canterbury, said he sees a definite
difference in both the team and the leadership program over his
three years.

“I think that captains
program has grown and grown, and I think that’s what
ultimately made the team more successful,” Short said.
“I thought when he first introduced it, it was a little bit
intimidating at first to read this book and basically go in-depth
about it, but we took it section by section and I actually learned
a lot about myself and how to approach certain
situations.”

Decker credited the program with
helping him develop into an effective vocal leader who can
understand his teammates better.

“There have already been
some situations where stuff we learned through the book and working
with Coach over the 10 weeks has already come into play,”
Decker said. “I think the biggest has been noticing different
emotions through different players, trying to find out more about
each player and knowing what causes them to have ups and downs, and
how you can work with each different player.”

The team has shown steady
improvement in wins and losses since the implementation of the
program despite playing one of the toughest schedules in the
region. After finishing 6-25-1 in the 2010-11 season, the Saints
improved to 10-17-1 the next year. Last season, Canterbury finished
above .500 for the first time in years with its 13-11-3 record and
was just one win shy of making a New England tournament.

“It’s gotten better
and better and the signs are a couple things,” McCarthy said.
“One, if you look at our records, our wins-losses have gotten
better. Two, I’ve gotten better implementing it.
There’s no one way to do it. It’s a program you can
mold to the time and interaction you have with the guys. It’s
growing on campus. Other coaches are buying in to the idea.
It’s being talked amongst the other kids in other sports.
They’re interested in it. There’s a buzz about
it.”

There is also a growing buzz
about the hockey team, which is looking to generate the same
excitement as it did 20 years ago when the team won its first of
two New England Prep Hockey championships (the second came in
1997). McCarthy was a player on that 1994 championship team, and he
said he hopes to instill the same kind of atmosphere in this
year’s team as he enjoyed 20 years ago.

“We didn’t have any
individuals, we just bought in to the system that was
taught,” McCarthy said. “That’s what I’ve
been trying to do as a coach here. I try to get our guys to buy in
to what we’re trying to teach, the systems and
responsibilities, while at the same time allowing them creativity
and to develop skill.”

McCarthy has his share of
skilled players on this Saints team. Senior forward Mark Bowen, who
verbally committed to play at Mercyhurst in 2016, finished second
on the team with 15 goals last season. Junior forward Shane Sellar
is an exciting young player who put up 28 points in 27 games as a
sophomore and is fielding attention from several Division 1
schools. Senior Connor Collier leads the way on defense along with
Decker, and Short looks to prove he can handle a full season of
work in net.

The Saints are also trying a new
motivational tactic in the locker room in the form of a symbolic
chain. The chain has 28 links, one for each of the 25 players and
three coaches at Canterbury, and the team awards the chain after
each game to the hardest-working player that day.

Short earned the chain after
posting a shutout against Hotchkiss on Dec. 7.

“It’s very symbolic
and actually it looks cool when you’re wearing it around the
locker room,” Short said. “If one link on the chain
falters, then the rest of the chain is useless, so each person has
to be the strongest link on the chain.”

Due to injuries and an illness
that ran through the locker room, Canterbury has yet to find its
groove this season, entering holiday tournament time with a 2-3
record. But with the benefit of the captains program, locker-room
chain and a hard-working roster, the Saints are looking forward to
taking another step toward a tournament-caliber season.

“From where we’re
at, I think we’re on the upward swing,” Decker said.
“We’re a team that’s going to be really fast.
We’re going to be a tough team to play against when we have
everyone going. We’re really deep in our forwards and
defensemen, so that always helps to have the depth that we
didn’t have last year. I just think that we’re going to
be a team that’s going to grind teams down to get
wins.”